Show tab number in your tab line
You can quickly jump to a specific tab page using the command with a count, but it can be difficult to quickly determine the tab number you want. This task is made much easier if you display the tab's number at the beginning of its tab page label. The following script will set up a tab label containing a "modified" indicator, the tab number, the name of the currently active buffer in the tab, and the number of windows in the tab. Drop it into your vimrc or its own file in your plugin directory. Getting the tab number is easy, it's just the "let label.=v:lnum" portion of the script, if you don't want to use the entire thing. We could have also used the tabpagenr() function, which may be required if using instead. Note that we CANNOT simply use %N as stated in , because we are returning text from a function that is called using %{...} syntax. Note, this script only works in GUI Vim, because it uses the (marginally easier) option instead of , which would work in terminal Vim. set showtabline=2 " always show tabs in gvim, but not vim " set up tab labels with tab number, buffer name, number of windows function! GuiTabLabel() let label = '' let bufnrlist = tabpagebuflist(v:lnum) " Add '+' if one of the buffers in the tab page is modified for bufnr in bufnrlist if getbufvar(bufnr, "&modified") let label = '+' break endif endfor " Append the tab number let label .= v:lnum.': ' " Append the buffer name let name = bufname(bufnrlist- 1) if name '' " give a name to no-name documents if &buftype 'quickfix' let name = 'List' else let name = 'Name' endif else " get only the file name let name = fnamemodify(name,":t") endif let label .= name " Append the number of windows in the tab page let wincount = tabpagewinnr(v:lnum, '$') return label . ' . wincount . '' endfunction set guitablabel=%{GuiTabLabel()} Since a tab can contain multiple windows, it can be nice to see at a glance which buffers are loaded in each window in a non-current tab. There is not enough space in a tab label for this, but we can add a tooltip so that we can see what files are loaded by hovering the mouse over the tab label in question. Again, this will only work in GUI Vim. " set up tab tooltips with every buffer name function! GuiTabToolTip() let tip = '' let bufnrlist = tabpagebuflist(v:lnum) for bufnr in bufnrlist " separate buffer entries if tip!='' let tip .= " \n " endif " Add name of buffer let name=bufname(bufnr) if name '' " give a name to no name documents if getbufvar(bufnr,'&buftype') 'quickfix' let name = 'List' else let name = 'Name' endif endif let tip.=name " add modified/modifiable flags if getbufvar(bufnr, "&modified") let tip .= ' +' endif if getbufvar(bufnr, "&modifiable") 0 let tip .= ' -' endif endfor return tip endfunction set guitabtooltip=%{GuiTabToolTip()} References * * * Comments The tip could be tweaked to use the 'tabline' option for terminal Vim. ---- Should probably start with a simple version, something like following. Set tab label to show tab number, filename, if modified ('+' is shown if the current window in the tab has been modified): :set guitablabel=%N/\ %t\ %M Then mention how the script shows '+' if any window in the tab has been modified. JohnBeckett 07:27, May 19, 2010 (UTC) ---- Yes, I like this. It was my original intent with this tip to include such a simple introductory example. In fact, it may be better to tweak this easy example to remove as much script as possible. I believe the script gains very little other than what you mention. The only other thing I see is that it shows the number of windows in the tab, but I'm not sure whether that's possible without the script or not. I believe we can readily use something like %N/\ %t\ %{ModifiedWindow()} for the tab line...not sure though. --Fritzophrenic 17:24, May 19, 2010 (UTC) ---- Here's a text-style tabline for both Console and GUI modes; it displays before each filename something like 3:4/8, meaning "Tab 3, window 4 of 8". These numbers are in "User1" highlight, or "User2" for the current tab, while the TabLine, TabLineSel and TabLineFill highlight groups have their usual meanings, see . You may want to set the colours in a colorscheme, possibly an owncoded one, but that is not the topic of this tip. if has('gui') set guioptions-=e endif if exists("+showtabline") function MyTabLine() let s = '' let t = tabpagenr() let i = 1 while i <= tabpagenr('$') let buflist = tabpagebuflist(i) let winnr = tabpagewinnr(i) let s .= '%' . i . 'T' let s .= (i t ? '%1*' : '%2*') let s .= ' ' let s .= i . ':' let s .= winnr . '/' . tabpagewinnr(i,'$') let s .= ' %*' let s .= (i t ? '%#TabLineSel#' : '%#TabLine#') let bufnr = buflist- 1 let file = bufname(bufnr) let buftype = getbufvar(bufnr, 'buftype') if buftype 'nofile' if file =~ '\/.' let file = substitute(file, '.*\/\ze.', '', '') endif else let file = fnamemodify(file, ':p:t') endif if file '' let file = 'Name' endif let s .= file let i = i + 1 endwhile let s .= '%T%#TabLineFill#%=' let s .= (tabpagenr('$') > 1 ? '%999XX' : 'X') return s endfunction set stal=2 set tabline=%!MyTabLine() map :tabnext imap :tabnext map :tabprev imap :tabprev endif The mappings at the end are for easy navigation among the tabs: Ctrl-tab = next (right of current), Ctrl-Shift-Tab = previous (left of current), both in round-robin wraparound mode. This function is not perfect: the name for a netrw directory appears as Name, just like for an unnamed buffer. Feel free to enhance it if you can. — Tonymec 22:49, August 14, 2010 (UTC) ----- Here is my tabline function. Unlike the others, it doesn't rely on +gui. It will display 1: (tab #), n+ (modified count on tab--only if needed) and special help and quickfix buffer labels. This tabline shows all active buffers. To minimize space, dir paths of regular files are shortened to first characters. I based it on the sample tabline in the vim docs. Buyer Beware! This is my first attempt at a vim script. If it destroys things, don't say I didn't warn you! Use at your own risk. Finally, any pointers and improvements are welcome. To use, just copy and paste the code into your .vimrc. set showtabline=2 " 0, 1 or 2; when to use a tab pages line set tabline=%!MyTabLine() " custom tab pages line function MyTabLine() let s = '' " complete tabline goes here " loop through each tab page for t in range(tabpagenr('$')) " set highlight for tab number and &modified let s .= '%#TabLineSel#' " set the tab page number (for mouse clicks) let s .= '%' . (t + 1) . 'T' " set page number string let s .= t + 1 . ':' " get buffer names and statuses let n = '' "temp string for buffer names while we loop and check buftype let m = 0 " &modified counter let bc = len(tabpagebuflist(t + 1)) "counter to avoid last ' ' " loop through each buffer in a tab for b in tabpagebuflist(t + 1) " buffer types: quickfix gets a Q, help gets H{base fname} " others get 1dir/2dir/3dir/fname shortened to 1/2/3/fname if getbufvar( b, "&buftype" ) 'help' let n .= 'H' . fnamemodify( bufname(b), ':t:s/.txt$//' ) elseif getbufvar( b, "&buftype" ) 'quickfix' let n .= 'Q' else let n .= pathshorten(bufname(b)) endif " check and ++ tab's &modified count if getbufvar( b, "&modified" ) let m += 1 endif " no final ' ' added...formatting looks better done later if bc > 1 let n .= ' ' endif let bc -= 1 endfor " add modified label n+ where n pages in tab are modified if m > 0 let s .= '. m . '+' endif " select the highlighting for the buffer names " my default highlighting only underlines the active tab " buffer names. if t + 1 tabpagenr() let s .= '%#TabLine#' else let s .= '%#TabLineSel#' endif " add buffer names let s .= n " switch to no underlining and add final space to buffer list let s .= '%#TabLineSel#' . ' ' endfor " after the last tab fill with TabLineFill and reset tab page nr let s .= '%#TabLineFill#%T' " right-align the label to close the current tab page if tabpagenr('$') > 1 let s .= '%=%#TabLineFill#%999Xclose' endif return s endfunction --JonSkanes 14:34, February 6, 2011 (UTC) ----- This is also my first attempt at a Vim script. I modified the above by JonSkanes to make it look more like the default style. I haven't tried it in GUI Vim. set tabline=%!MyTabLine() function MyTabLine() let s = '' " complete tabline goes here " loop through each tab page for t in range(tabpagenr('$')) " select the highlighting for the buffer names if t + 1 tabpagenr() let s .= '%#TabLineSel#' else let s .= '%#TabLine#' endif " empty space let s .= ' ' " set the tab page number (for mouse clicks) let s .= '%' . (t + 1) . 'T' " set page number string let s .= t + 1 . ' ' " get buffer names and statuses let n = '' "temp string for buffer names while we loop and check buftype let m = 0 " &modified counter let bc = len(tabpagebuflist(t + 1)) "counter to avoid last ' ' " loop through each buffer in a tab for b in tabpagebuflist(t + 1) " buffer types: quickfix gets a Q, help gets H{base fname} " others get 1dir/2dir/3dir/fname shortened to 1/2/3/fname if getbufvar( b, "&buftype" ) 'help' let n .= 'H' . fnamemodify( bufname(b), ':t:s/.txt$//' ) elseif getbufvar( b, "&buftype" ) 'quickfix' let n .= 'Q' else let n .= pathshorten(bufname(b)) "let n .= bufname(b) endif " check and ++ tab's &modified count if getbufvar( b, "&modified" ) let m += 1 endif " no final ' ' added...formatting looks better done later if bc > 1 let n .= ' ' endif let bc -= 1 endfor " add modified label n+ where n pages in tab are modified if m > 0 "let s .= '. m . '+' let s.= '+ ' endif " add buffer names if n '' let s .= 'Name' else let s .= n endif " switch to no underlining and add final space to buffer list "let s .= '%#TabLineSel#' . ' ' let s .= ' ' endfor " after the last tab fill with TabLineFill and reset tab page nr let s .= '%#TabLineFill#%T' " right-align the label to close the current tab page if tabpagenr('$') > 1 let s .= '%=%#TabLine#%999XX' endif return s endfunction Jordon Kalilich 22:31, March 25, 2011 (UTC) ---- Hi, here are my two cents: if you simply want your tab line displaying tab numbers and file names, just copy the example code shown in the official 'tabline' documentation in your .vimrc, and then modify the MyTabLabel function this way: function MyTabLabel(n) let buflist = tabpagebuflist(a:n) let winnr = tabpagewinnr(a:n) return buflist- 1 . ') ' . bufname(buflist- 1) endfunction This will show a tab line like this: | 1) file1.txt | 2) file2.txt | 3) file3.txt | Of course, feel free to change the separator defined in the last line (here, the parenthesis). --BobFavazzi 16:22, October 10, 2011 (UTC) :No, this will display the buffer number, not the tab number. You could easily end up with something like: :| 4) file4.txt | 1) file1.txt | 1) file1.txt | 2)file2.txt | :--Fritzophrenic 17:16, October 10, 2011 (UTC) ::You're right. Thank you for the correction, I am no Vim expert at all. ::I finally ended up with the .vimrc entry below, borrowed (and simplified) from this vim_use thread about "setting Vim tabline". if exists("+showtabline") function MyTabLine() let s = '' let t = tabpagenr() let i = 1 while i <= tabpagenr('$') let buflist = tabpagebuflist(i) let winnr = tabpagewinnr(i) let s .= '%' . i . 'T' let s .= (i t ? '%1*' : '%2*') let s .= ' ' let s .= i . ')' let s .= ' %*' let s .= (i t ? '%#TabLineSel#' : '%#TabLine#') let file = bufname(buflist- 1) let file = fnamemodify(file, ':p:t') if file '' let file = 'Name' endif let s .= file let i = i + 1 endwhile let s .= '%T%#TabLineFill#%=' let s .= (tabpagenr('$') > 1 ? '%999XX' : 'X') return s endfunction set stal=2 set tabline=%!MyTabLine() endif ::Hope this may helps. :) ::--BobFavazzi 11:10, October 13, 2011 (UTC) ----